Raja Ravi Varma’s Wife Bhageerathi, Rare 1870 Photo
An old 1870 photograph of Raja Ravi Varma’s wife Bhageerathi Bayi. A supposedly very rare photo from 1870 of Raja Ravi Varma’s wife Bhageerathi Bayi. Also known as Pooruruttati Nal Bhageerathi Bayi Thampuratty, shown here as a 16 years old.
Raja Ravi Varma one of the greatest Indian artists and is still a household name in India. He was born in 1848 to an aristocratic family in Kilimanoor (40 km from Thiruvanthapuram). At the age of 18, he got married to a 12 years old Bhageerathi Bayi in 1866. She hailed from an equally aristocratic family from Mavelikkara, some 80 km north of Kilimanoor.
The couple had two sons and three daughters; Kerala Varma, Rama Varma, Mahaprabha Amma, Uma Amma, and Cheria Kochamma. Rama Varma followed in his father’s footsteps and became an eminent artist in his own right. Mahaprabha modeled for two of her father’s paintings, one of them was the famous There Comes Papa (1893). Raja Ravi Varma died at the age of 58 in 1906. It is not known when exactly Bhageerathi died. Click on the photo for better view.
Did you know- the first oleograph print that was to come out of his newly established Raja Ravi Varma Fine Arts Lithographic press in 1894 was the Birth of Shakuntala.
From the collection- 1903 Delhi Durbar King’s Succession – Old Photo., King George’s Statue Chennai – Old Postcard 1914., Arrival Of Lord Mountbatten At Delhi – Old Print 1947., Old Book 1895 – The English in India (1700-1805).
